• Apropos the controversy about Chetan Bhagat’s name in the credits, I don’t remember enough of the book or what got shown in the opening or closing credits to comment. I will say, however, that I noticed at least a few jokes circulating on the Internet making their way into the movie. The one about submitting

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  • I’m back…

    … as you might have noticed. First off, I hope you have a great 2010! To those of you who wrote to me or commented on my earlier post wishing me well: thank you! A few observations: * You folks were right: there isn’t such a thing as a stress-free move. I found myself yelling

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  • The most obvious reason to watch Network is that it is a satire on television that now looks almost like reality TV. However, it also plays as a wonderful drama about old men searching for relevance in a changing world. While the focus is on Peter Finch’s fantastic performance as Howard Beale, William Holden’s Max Schumacher

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  • Oye Santa Singh!

    On the personal front, there’s a heck of a lot of chaos right now: we’re moving back to Bangalore after two very enjoyable years in Mumbai, and there seem to be a gazillion things to do before we drive out on Christmas morning. I doubt I’ll be able to even think about blog posts for

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  • I was discussing the beauty of old Hindi film lyrics with a couple of friends here and the following observation came up: Most of these songs use some Urdu word or the other. There seem to be two reasons for this. First, the “softer” sounds in Urdu are well suited to convey the sort of

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  • As ensemble dramas go, Rang De Basanti ranks among the best that has come out of Bollywood in recent times. Apart from the fact that it is mostly well-written and acted, it deserves brownie points its effort to make the freedom struggle relevant to a generation born decades after independence. The most obvious way of looking at

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  • Up

    Pixar has by now gotten to the point where, if they wanted to go The Producers route and make a really bad movie, they’d have to outsource it. By those standards, this isn’t in the same league as some of their best work. However, it has an emotional resonance that took me by surprise. Much

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  • Dear readers, First I hear that Ben Kingsley is in India. ToI announces this news with a picture of him and his wife Daniela at the Taj Mahal. Then I see this picture. Am I the only one whose mind is screaming Bunty Aur Babli Strike Back? Please let me know. Regards Ramsu

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  • Dear Virender Sehwag

    Dear Viru, Congratulations on that knock. After scoring less than 150 in your previous hundred (other than being prime, 131 has no redeeming qualities), I thought maybe you were losing your touch. Good to see that this is not the case. I do, however, have one request. Would you please, for the love of God,

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  • A bigger boat

    Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat has a brilliant section about the protagonists making a list of things to take with them on the boat trip. The first list they make turns out to have so many items that the boat would likely sink under the weight of it all. Then one of

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